Run the world

the powerpuff girls

*Lia*

"Ok Mick, can you hear me?".

My heart was racing with excitement. My first time at the Formula 1 pitwall. I had been working towards this moment my whole life. Now I finally had the headphones on and the wheel in my hand.

"Loud and clear, Lia." replied Mick with that light-hearted manner that you could only love about him.

Little Schumacher was part of our family, like another brother. I had known him for what felt like forever. But if it hadn't been for Kevin, we would never have thought that it would be wise for us to work together.

However, we had already proven that we harmonized well in the first tests on the Silverstone track.

But now it really came down to it. We would now be testing our car properly and, having done some more work on the set up for today, it was important for me to see how it felt for him.

"I can't wait to finally get out on the track," that was so very Mick.

He had the energy of a golden retriever. In every sense of the word. I was sure if he had a tail, he would have been wagging it by now.

"Two minutes to go.", I said quietly, glancing at the clock tucked into our pitwall next to me "You're about to be pushed out.".

I turned around a bit in my chair and could see them pulling Mick out of the garage. He raised his thumb in my direction and I returned it.

"Lia, I'm excited."

"Mick, you're the professional. I'm the one who should be excited. But we can do this."

"Still excited."

"You'll be fine, Mick. I'll be there to mentally hold your hand."

"Thanks." how did this walking sugar shock actually somehow get out at Haas?

Did Günther have diabetes and therefore had to part with this sugar-sweet boy or...?

He was polite, eager and even if the two years at Haas had perhaps not been glorious, I had still been of the opinion that he should have been given a chance. He had perhaps the highest pressure in the driver field, if only because of his name. Maybe I would never understand why they had let him go.

On the other hand, it had been my good fortune, because if he hadn't come to Aston Martin, I'm sure he wouldn't have been allowed to choose a race engineer and I probably never would have ended up here.

Now he was my sugar shock.

"And we're off. Mick, show them what you and the car are made of," I said with a big grin on my lips.

"Yes ma'am." he replied and I could hear that he was grinning broadly too.

My eyes immediately slid to the screen that was about to show me the times and for the first time since I had arrived here, I was completely calm. Now came the part where I knew what I was doing. No background noise. No people.

Just Mick, the car and me.

I got up from my spot at the pit wall and walked over to the pit with my notebook. Mick was just getting out of his car and pulling his helmet off his head.

"Very good lap times.", I praised and could see his big grin.

"How does the car feel?", I asked further.

"Outstanding." he gasped, a little out of breath.

"Very nice. We need to take another look at turns 12 and 14. You can take them even tighter, we can still get a few hundredths out of them," he pulled the balaclava off his head and now stood next to me to be able to look at the numbers.